The Circut
by kdibs227cheerleader
Summary: AU They're five teens on the run, who have nothing in common other than the fact that the Agency has taken someone important from them. Sure, their little ragtag group consists of a teenaged assasian, a shy fear inducer, a girl who can move things with her mind, an abused healer, and a cocky matter mover. But, no one ever got noticed for being ordinary.


'_Real love hurts, real love makes you totally open and vulnerable. Real love will take you far beyond yourself, and therefore real love will devastate you. If love doesn't shatter you, you will not know love.' ~Anonymous _

_Garrett_

When Garrett was six, and not even big enough to be call six according to his dad since he was pretty tiny for his age, his mom would get up really early on Sunday mornings and take him down several blocks to a rundown park. It wasn't as good as the one uptown, but it had a couple good swings and a standing slide, and best of all, a merry-go-round. That was the best of all. It didn't matter what had happened that day, or what was going to happen when they got home, but when Garrett clambered onto the metal contraption, and his mother began to spin it around, faster and faster, all the worries seemed to melt away.

Right now, Garrett would give anything to have those times back. The police lights flashed on the concrete like some sort of horrid light show. In his neighborhood, he had grown accustomed to police cars being on the streets, but he never would have thought that they would be parked in front of his house. He was told to stay away, and when he didn't comply, a police officer was called over to move him. Garrett was only too happy to do so.

His old man sat in the back of one of the police cars. His expression was one void of anything, but if Garrett looked closer he saw the thinnest threads of confusion and disgust. Disgust at what his own son had just announced to him, or disgust at what Garrett had found when he came down the stairs, he wondered. Oh well, it wasn't like he would be getting any answers. The police were nuts if they thought that they could get anything from him. It would have taken all the gin in the world and then some to get him to crack.

Some people were spilling into the sidewalk across the street, and every few minutes Garrett caught the drape or curtain from the house at the end of the drive move back and forth, as if someone was peeking out but didn't want to be seen. He could understand; after all, this town wasn't known for its good vibes and many of the residents here were more than sketchy.

"Garrett? Garrett! What's going on here?"

It took more effort than he would have thought to raise his head, and when he did, Garrett wished he had just let it hang. Mrs. Oxon, clad in her customary blue bathrobe and white slippers, was charging towards him, slipping easily between two officers who tried halfheartedly to stop her.

"Hell finally froze over," Garrett said quietly, as if his voice would shatter his already crumbling world. Mrs. Oxon sat down on the curb next to him. She took his hand in her own and squeezed it tightly. He wanted to cry; more than that he wanted to scream and thrash and do unspeakable things to the man in the back of that police car, since there was no way he was fit to be called a husband and father. Fathers didn't leave things like this to be seen and found by their sons, and husbands didn't do those unspeakable things to their wives.

"What do you mean? What happened? Did Marcus hit you again? Did Lucy call the cops finally?" Mrs. Oxon asked while she surveyed the scene. Police were going in and out of the house, and there was an ambulance parked on the side of the road too.

For just a second, Garrett let himself think that maybe his mom was going to be ok. Sure, this was nothing he could fix; he couldn't run down to the drug store for ace bandages or ice packs or Advil, but these guys, the paramedics, they could save her. Garrett hadn't realized that Mrs. Oxon was still talking. Her voice, which was growing more and more agitated as she went on, was slowly beginning to seep into his barley functioning brain.

"-just knew that that man was a no good thug. Why, if that was me I would have put his behind to the curb _years_ ago. But, Lucy always had that soft spot, and she even let the darkest of men see that. I always thought that this would happen. Not to you, dear, but to someone on this block. God, I hate it when I'm right." She said, rubbing her thumb over his knuckles.

Beside his own mother, there was no one else in the world Garrett trusted more than the woman sitting next to him. She had helped him countless times, whether it was helping him with school work, or patching him up while his mother went to battle with a demon, or simply just to sit down and play a game of go fish to kill time, Mrs. Oxon was the only other woman in his life to make it on his most important people list.

"I just wanted to talk to her. I came down the stairs, and she was just lying there and he…he…" Garrett didn't want to finish that sentence, he wouldn't be able to even if some guy came out from the shadows and offered him a million dollars. He would never be that desperate.

Mrs. Oxon didn't say anything, just pulled him closer to her so that his head could rest on her shoulder, and they stayed like that until a bunch of people began pouring out of his house. He tried not to look, but the moment the EMT's came out with, not a stretcher barring his mother, but with a body bag, Garrett felt his entire world shatter around him. He wasn't even aware he was running until the same police officer who had led him away earlier began to pull him away from this.

"Come on, kiddo. You don't need to see this." Officer no-name said as he tugged him away. Garrett fought back; this guy had no right to come in here and say he couldn't see this. That was his mother, not his. This guys whole world hadn't just shattered to pieces, his did.

"No! That's my mom! Get off of me, don't touch me!" Garrett cried. He wasn't even sure when he began to cry, but his face was drenched and he was shaking. His legs buckled beneath him, and Officer no-name led him over to the curb again. Mrs. Oxon gathered him in her arms and began to scold the officer over his head.

"How dare you, letting a child see something as horrid as that. Haven't you got any sympathy?" She cried. The words seemed useless, now that the unthinkable had occurred, and there wasn't anything Garrett could do to stop it.

"Ma'am, with all respect, I need to take him with me." Officer no-name said, and Garrett could hear the remorse in his voice. This guy was actually sorry that he had to take him away, as if he had the choice to leave him in this nightmare or not.

"Why? He can stay with me, and then we'll both go to the station tomorrow." Mrs. Oxon argued. She clutched him tighter, and he could imagine what she must look like right now; like a mother bear daring the hunter to shoot one of her cubs with her around.

"I can't do that, but you can meet us at the station. We just need him to answer some questions for us, and then he can go. That's all." Officer no-name explained.

"Can I go with him down to the station? Would that be ok?" She asked. The officer okayed it, and soon he was being hauled to his feet. The cop car containing his father was still there, but the paramedics were gone. His mother was nowhere in sight.

He was led, and half carried, to one of the two remaining cop cars, and gently lowered into the back seat. Of all the times he thought he would be back here, this scenario had never crossed his mind.

"It'll be ok, Gar," Mrs. Oxon murmured as the engine started up. Garrett didn't respond, just tucked his head in-between her head and shoulder. As they pulled away, Garrett couldn't think of how it would ever be ok again.

As he looked out the rear view window, he caught sight of his fathers face. If Garrett wasn't mistaken, it looked like there were the remains of tear stains on his cheeks. He quickly pushed that thought away, for why would a man so vicious, so nasty, have a reason to cry?


End file.
